


Crossing Lines

by Someone_aka_Me



Series: in a world that could've left us hard as metal [3]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Asexual Charlie, Doomed Relationship, Incest, M/M, POV Second Person
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-19
Updated: 2014-08-19
Packaged: 2018-02-13 19:14:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 769
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2161968
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Someone_aka_Me/pseuds/Someone_aka_Me





	Crossing Lines

**Author's Note:**

  * For [MissingMommy](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MissingMommy/gifts).



You're not really sure where it starts. You can't pin down an exact moment when that line was crossed.

You fell asleep in his bed all the time when you were kids, and it was never weird. He was your big brother, the one you knew you could always go to if you ever needed to feel safe. Some weeks, you spent more nights in his bed than your own. He never minded.

The two years he spent at Hogwarts and you spent at home taught you how much you relied on him. You spent every night over the holidays curled up next to him, soaking in the warmth before he went and left you cold again.

He never once laughed at you or told you to grow up. He knew when you needed to just be there and when you needed space and when you needed human contact.

He was just your brother and that was that.

And then school made everything different. You spent the first night alone in your bed staring up at the ceiling and trying to sleep. You'd never felt quite so alone before.

But you weren't sure if you were welcome, weren't sure if Bill wanted his little brother tagging along when his friends were around.

You stared at your eggs the next morning, unable to completely wipe the mournful look from your face until he'd flopped down beside you with that brilliant grin and said, "What, little brother all grown up, doesn't need me anymore?"

And you knew then that you were welcome any time.

He was the first one you told when you figured out that you were asexual, when you knew that something about you just wasn't like everyone else and finally discovered that it had a name.

He told you it didn't matter what you wanted; you were still his brother and normal was relative and over-idealised anyway. You hugged him so hard you heard his spine pop.

The thing was, the relationship between the two of you never really changed, even when maybe it was supposed to, and neither of you really noticed until the day one of the other boys asked.

You were fourteen and he was sixteen and… and the two of you didn't really fit in the bed without winding up an awkward tangle of limbs, but you didn't care and he didn't seem to.

You slept in too late and missed the beginning of practice one Saturday and your teammates had sent someone looking — little Oliver Wood, the first year who wanted to be a Keeper so badly he attended every practice of a team he wasn't even on yet.

Oliver had gone to your dorm first, and one of your dorm-mates had told him where to look.

And Oliver had asked, because he was eleven and curious and you hadn't known how to answer, hadn't known how to explain what you and Bill were because it was something more than ordinary.

You remember the first time you kissed, but somehow that doesn't seem like where the line was drawn because you'd been something more long before that moment.

Still, the first kiss… changed something. You'd fallen off your broom — the first time in _ages_ , and you were absolutely furious with yourself for not noticing that second bludger — and he later admits that he was _terrified_ , because you'd fallen from the worst height. High enough to do damage, yet too low for anyone to have time to stop your fall.

They'd whisked you off to the hospital wing — you don't remember the trip, as you'd blacked out — so you hadn't seen the panic on his face, but apparently it was legendary.

The first thing you remember is waking up to him by your bedside clinging to your hand and saying, "God dammit, Charlie, don't you ever do that to me again."

And he'd kissed you.

And nothing had changed but everything had.

So maybe that is where it starts. Sort of. Even though it started long before that, too.

All you know for certain is the day it ends, because you are left alone, and it doesn't matter how much you knew it couldn't last forever: that doesn't stop it from hurting like hell when you see him with her.

You remind yourself that he is your brother and there are certain types of acceptable love between brothers and this is not one of them.

You wonder if he ever gets lost in memories the way you do, if he ever wishes to go back.

You can't stop yourself from hoping that he does.


End file.
